How Important Sleep is for Weight Loss

In this blog, you will learn all about how important sleep is for weight loss.

We will cover why It's important and how it Impacts your decision-making, training, and nutrition. Lastly, I will give you tools to improve your sleep habits.

First, let’s get this out of the way. How do you lose weight? Calorie Deficit.

Whether you sleep 8 hours or 2 hours, calories are king when it comes to weight loss.

Even with it being that simple, I understand it's not easy.

So, let's focus on how we can make this weight & fat loss thing less challenging than it needs to be.

This is where sleep comes in!

I know what you're thinking, "But Isaac, the Instagram Influencer, tells me I can sleep when I'm dead!"

Do me a favor, tell Isaac he is a douche (politely), and then go to any new parents and ask their thoughts on sleep. I bet they would crave some extra sleep (for a good reason, obviously). 

It would be best if you treat your sleep like your best friend.

Sleep is truly the number 1 supplement you should be prioritizing, especially when it comes to optimizing your weight loss (and training performance).

AND, Yes, there are more reasons why sleep is sleep is great for weight loss aside from being less tired, so let's get into it!

HOW SLEEP IMPACTS OUR DECISION-MAKING

As you may have already experienced, when you lack sleep, you get tired (and probably cranky). As a result, you may feel lazy and don't want to do anything productive.

Why is that?

Sleep is your free recovery tool. It helps you recharge your batteries.

It gives you more mental and physical energy. That mental and physical POWER!

When you lack sleep, what does it usually lead you to do for the day? How does your decision-making usually go?

That seems about right...

Besides the tired, cranky temper tantrums, you also lean towards making the more convenient and easy decisions. Like you were supposed to get a workout in, it ended up being either a half-assed session or no training.

Maybe it's not getting any movement and laying on the couch all day.

OR maybe it's you ordering from Door Dash Dan all day vs. making the nutritious meals you planned.

Getting consistent quality sleep can be the difference between making those choices to hit a workout and get after it in the gym while also staying on track with your nutrition.

HOW SLEEP IMPACTS OUR NUTRITION

A lack of sleep will impact you hormonally.

When you lack sleep, you will notice that your cravings increase, your hunger increases, and you feel those hunger signals more often.

We have these hormones: Ghrelin (our “hunger hormone”) and Leptin.

Simply put: 

Ghrelin are messages that signal your hunger.

Leptin are messeges that signal your fullness.

When your sleep sucks, your ghrelin levels increase, and leptin levels decrease.

Causing you to feel hungrier and feel hungrier more often. When you eat, you increase your chances of eating more than usual, and then rather than that feeling leaving you satisfied, you get hungrier soon, causing you to eat a bit more.

So, back to ordering from Door Dash Dan, you get that bacon, egg, and cheese on a bagel and a dozen donuts (since you are craving this hyperpalable food (i.e., junk food)) since you are too tired to cook for yourself. You demolish it all. Then, an hour later, you will notice yourself grabbing your phone to order little something something more until you become best buds with Dan.

(Here you both are😉)

Something to consider here...

Have you ever felt you need to stop eating past 8 pm because that is where you gain weight?

Well, maybe. But probably not because of the reason you are thinking.

The fact that you ate past 8 pm will not directly cause you to gain fat. 

The time you eat, whether before or after 8 pm, doesn't matter. (Because what matters is... *Cough* Calorie Deficit *Cough*)

But does this happen to sound familiar to you?

You eat dinner around 6 or 7. Afterwards, you sit to watch some tv. (probably, a couple of episodes of FRIENDS... I hope!) until you feel a little rumble in your stomach. You grab the bag of chips out of the snack cabinet and then go back to watch TV.

Some time passes as you watch tv and the next thing you know is not is the bag is all gone; it is also past midnight.

So you wonder how you can fix this late-night snacking of yours...

Have you ever tried going to bed and a reasonable time?

Think about it; you are up for several hours after dinner. This opens an opportunity for that hunger to come back because you haven't eaten in a couple of hours.

Sometimes the best tip for late-night snacking, especially if you stay up until midnight, is to get to bed a bit earlier.

HOW SLEEP IMPACTS OUR TRAINING AND MOVEMENT

**Now, before we get into this, I'm not talking to you if you cannot get consistent quality sleep. I understand new parents are out there, or your job/lifestyle requires a funky sleep schedule. No matter what, you can and should still train! I'm asking you if you have more control over your schedule and can make these adjustments to your sleep. I am just trying to drill home the point of how much sleep can help optimize your workout performance and help you make the quality decision .**

You're welcome:)

So as we talked about briefly above, a lack of sleep will impact your mental and physical energy. So if you are running off 3-4 hours of sleep a night, are you giving yourself the best opportunity to enhance your gym training fully?

Remember in college pulling all-nighters during finals for days (I mean, I didn't do this because I hated & sucked at school. I remember having a couple of all-nighters for other reasons... but we will save that for another day).

Anyways... what happened the following days. You are left wanting to snuggle up in bed watching Netflix all day, or you go to the gym, look around for a minute, walk on the treadmill for five, and call it a day.

If you consistently lack sleep, you increase your chances of being less effective with your training.

Sleep is your free pre-workout supplement and free recovery supplement. Red Bull may give you wings, but sleep gives you all the Superpowers! (Not all the superpowers, so I don't get held reliable here)

The rams piss that Gina from GNC sold you is a waste of money, especially if your sleep sucks.

TOOLS ON HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP:

Here is what I recommend:

Aim to get 7-9 hours of sleep a night:

• Keep your room dark (get black-out curtains)
• Keep the room cool, around 65 degrees Fahrenheit 
• Shut Phones & Televisions OFF - Shut down Screentime about an hour before bed 
• Set your Circadian Rhythm (Your internal bedtime clock) - Go to bed & wake up at a consistent time each night
• Avoid Caffeine 8+ hours before bed
• Avoid Alcohol consumption before bed
• Invest in a quality Mattress (you will spend ⅓ of your life on it)
• Do controlled a deep breath work (like Diaphragmatic Breath - 6-8 seconds in, 6-8 seconds out)

Hopefully, you better understand how important sleep is for weight loss.

Now you can stop listening to when that douchebag, Isaac the Instagram influencer, tells you to “Sleep when you're dead.”  Because, unfortunately, that day may come sooner than later if you don't take care of your body!

Treat sleep like your best friend and take care of it because it will be a great supplement to your training and nutrition!

-Kev

As I Am

P.S. -- When you're ready for private online coaching, schedule a free, no obligation call with me! We can map out a plan to meet your fitness goals!